The Nissan Bluebird (Japanese: 日産ブルーバード, Hepburn: Nissan Burūbādo) is a compact car with a model name introduced in 1957. It has been Nissan's most internationally recognized sedan, in multiple body styles, and is known for its dependability and durability. The Bluebird originated from Nissan's first vehicles, dating to the early 1900s, and its traditional competitor became the Toyota Corona. The Bluebird was positioned to compete with the Corona, as the Corona was developed to continue offering a sedan used as a taxi since Toyota Crown was growing in size. Every generation of the Bluebird has been available as a taxi, duties that are shared with base level Nissan Cedrics. It is one of the longest-running nameplates from a Japanese automaker. It spawned most of Nissan's products sold internationally, and has been known by a number of different names and bodystyles, including the Auster/Stanza names.
Ls Mag 610 11
Export versions were sold variously as the Datsun 510, Datsun 180B (with 160B and 200B versions) and the Datsun Bluebird. The Nissan Bluebird nameplate began appearing around 1982 as the Datsun marque was phased out in favour of Nissan.
From 1981 to 1985, Australia followed the Japanese convention by calling its car the Bluebird, and had a unique, facelifted rear-wheel-drive version for 1984 and 1985. That car was replaced in 1986 by the Nissan Pintara. It would be replaced by the successive Bluebird, also called Pintara, until 1992; then the range was brought in line with the Japanese model, for the U13 series from 1993 to 1997. In an unusual twist, brought about under the short lived Button Plan, the Pintara was also rebadged for Ford Australia as the Ford Corsair, reviving a Ford UK nameplate last used in the 1960s.
The DAT corporation had been producing cars since 1914, but through the 1920s, much of their profitability depended on government subsidies of their large trucks.[1] A 1930 ministerial ordinance by the Japanese government declared that drivers' licenses would not be required for cars with engines up to 500 cc displacement, and that the purchase of these vehicles would be taxed at a lower rate.[2] DAT began to produce a small car for this market. The new car was called "Datson"(i.e. "Son of DAT")[3] and later "Datsun" to distinguish it from the full-sized trucks and cars the company had produced in the past.
In 1929, DAT built a small-car prototype called the DAT 91. They ended up marketing this model as the DATSON Type 10 ("son of DAT"), since it was a shrunken version of the earlier 31.[4] "DAT" was now a backronym for Durable, Attractive, and Trustworthy. The car fit into a new category of small cars, limited to half a liter's displacement.[5] The production version was powered by DAT's own four-cylinder, side-valve engine of 495 cc. It (and the inauspicious "DATSON" name, with "son" being close to 損, the Japanese word for "loss"[5]) was replaced by the Datsun Type 11 in 1932.
The 1932 Datsun Type 11 was a small car with a 495 cc, 10 HP side valve engine and a three speed transmission. [JSAE]. It was offered in several body styles, and DAT/Nissan sold 150 of the Type 11 in 1932. [JSAE] The Type 11 was only produced during the year 1932, as changes in the law allowed Nissan to sell a new model with a larger engine in 1933.
The Datsun Type 11 had the same engine displacement and external dimensions as an Austin Seven, and information about the British car was widely available within Japan. In October and November 1929, the chief engineer of Austin presented a paper in Tokyo called "The British Light Car". This paper is supposed to have provided detailed explanations and illustrations of many of the mechanical components of the Austin Seven.[3] The exact relationship between the two cars is, however, in dispute. Some authors say that it was a licensed copy of the Seven.[6] Others insist it was a copy, but not an authorized one.[7] Herbert Austin was definitely concerned about the possibility of the Datsun infringing on his patents; he subsequently imported a 1935 Datsun to examine, but decided not to file a complaint. Some websites have pointed to this as evidence supporting the hypothesis that the Datsun was not a copy of the Austin.[8] Other websites have pointed out that the decision to not press charges might have been because that by then the Datsun designs had begun to differ from those of the Austin.[9]
The 1933 Datsun Type 12 was a small car produced by the Nissan corporation. The name Datsun was used by DAT for their line of small cars. After the DAT corporation was absorbed into Nissan, these cars continued to be produced, and the original model name was maintained. The Type 12 was basically similar to the earlier 1932 Type 11, but had a larger engine.
Japanese laws at that time did not require a license to drive automobiles with small-displacement engines. DAT/Nissan produced the Datsun Type 11 as their entry into this market. The original limitation for this class of vehicles was 500 cc displacement engines, but that was changed to 750 cc in 1933. Nissan responded to this change by producing a larger engine, and gave the more powerful car a new name, the Type 12.
The 1934 Datsun Type 13 went into production in April 1934 with its chassis built in the Osaka Plant of the Automotive Division of Tobata Casting, which merged with Nihon Sangyo Co. (Nissan) after selling its factory. Its grille was chrome plated with a tall heart shaped opening instead of the Austin 7 like grille. It is the first Datsun model to have a truck variant called the 13T, along as being the first car exported from Japan; a total of 44 vehicles were exported to South Africa and Australia.
The 1935 Datsun Type 14 is externally very similar to the Type 13 but uses the addition of a leaping rabbit emblem at the front. Mechanically, the old DAT engine of the Datsun 13 was replaced with the Datsun Type 7 engine, a side valve four-cylinder engine with a displacement of 722 cc (44.1 cu in). It marked "the birth of the Japanese car industry" according to Britain's National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. Nissan produced the vehicle at Yokohama, along with its commercial truck version called the 14T.
The 1936 Datsun Type 15 was mechanically very similar to the preceding Datsun Type 14. The Type 7 engine was retained, by with a higher compression ratio, increased from 5.2 to 5.4, which increased power by 1 hp (0.75 kW). All Datsun 15 models have bumpers. Both the Type 15 and 15T were produced in Yokohama on May 1936, with the 15T having a different engine cover that has near vertical vents instead of the cars horizontal vents.
The last Datsun small car is the Datsun Type 17 which is distinguished by a wide vertical bar in middle of the front grille. Production began in April 1938 and according to Nissan, continued until January 1944, although David Bent claims that it finished in late 1938 as part of the cessation civilian car production that followed the Japanese decision to focus on military vehicles. The Datsun Type 17T resumed production after the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1949 until the 1955 introduction of the all new Datsun 120-series truck.
Nissan resumed automobile production starting in November 1947 with the Datsun DA series.[10] The DA was a very modest and simple car based on the Type 17, with bodywork made partially of wood as a result of materials shortages.[11] The better equipped and more modern looking DB "Deluxe" series was added in March 1948. Nissan also offered commercial vehicles, and the DA was sold as the Datsun 1121 truck, which was essentially the DA with a shortened cab for the front seat and an exposed cargo area attached to the chassis. An open-top roadster/convertible called the Datsun DC-3 appeared 12 January 1952, largely created by Yuichi Ohta. Yuichi was the son of Hiro Ohta, who founded the Ohta Jidosha car company, which produced cars in Japan between 1934 and 1957, until it became part of Tokyu Kogyo Kurogane shortly thereafter. The Datsun DS appeared in 1950, replacing the DA series as Datsun's Standard Sedan.
All of these models were built on the identical pre-war chassis, itself a copy of or at least heavily inspired by the Austin 7. The chassis is short and with a narrow tread, as do most inter-war British cars, leading to somewhat ungainly designs with large overhangs on all sides as Datsun attempted to incorporate the post-war automobile design language. The one major change took place in August 1951, when the wheelbase was increased from 2,005 to 2,150 mm (78.9 to 84.6 in) to accommodate a four-door body (or more cargo space in case of the trucks).[11] The DA and DS (Standard) were the entry-level Datsuns, with the Deluxe DB being more modern and better equipped. In 1952 Nissan entered into an engineering cooperation with the British Austin Motor Company, and offered a Japanese-built Austin A40 as their top-of-the-line model.
In 1955 Nissan revamped its passenger car products, begn with the Datsun Sedan 110 series. It was introduced to Japan within a month of the introduction of the Toyota Crown RS series, and was smaller than the Prince Sedan introduced earlier in 1952 and the Subaru 1500 introduced in 1955. Sedans built in Japan during the 1950s were mostly intended to serve as taxis, and introduced mass production techniques, as opposed to earlier vehicles made using a slower hand-made process.
This sedan was designed to be compliant with the Japanese Government's dimension regulations passed in 1950. The engine displacement was kept below the 1000 cc designation to reduce the annual road tax obligation, but more importantly, the engine displaced less than 910 cc as this was the upper limit for small taxis.[13] Nissan did have an engineering relationship with the Austin Motor Company.
Although Nissan's own materials indicate that the Bluebird name emerged in 1959, some records show that the name first adorned a 988 cc (60.3 cu in), 34 PS (25 kW) four-door sedan in 1957, which was part of the company's 110/210 series. Its engine was based on an Austin design, as Nissan had been building the Austin A50 Cambridge under licence in the 1950s. 2ff7e9595c
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